'Stupider than France' bad tax policy: Norquist

The government is "abusively taxing" Americans living overseas and U.S. companies competing in a global economy, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist told CNBC on Monday. This is the reason some U.S. companies are looking to bolt for more favorable tax shores, he added.

Those moves, known as inversions, are the latest craze in mergers and acquisitions in which American firms look to buy stakes in foreign companies and then move their headquarters to the acquisition target's locale. Recent examples include Pfizer's failed $118 billion bid for U.K. rival AstraZeneca and Medtronic's $43 billion proposed offer for Irish rival Covidien.

The marginal corporate tax rates in Ireland is 12.5 percent, while Britain's is 21 percent. Both are much lower than the 40 percent rate in the U.S., according to KPMG. Few American companies pay the full rate because of loopholes, but it's still generally much higher.

Even a high tax nation like France at 33.33 percent has a lower corporate tax rate. "We do damage to American-owned companies that France doesn't to French-owned companies," Norquist said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "Stupider than France is not where you want to be on tax policy."

Norquist, who is highly influential in conservative circles, thinks the U.S. should cut corporate taxes to 25 percent, including 5 percent at the state and local levels.

Norquist also pointed to France having a better policy for individuals living abroad. "If you are French and you live in the United States for a couple of years, you pay American taxes as an individual. You don't pay French taxes because you earned it here."

"If you are an American and live in France for 30 years, France taxes you and we tax you," he said. "We make it very difficult to be an American and to move around in a global world as a company or an individual."

Faced with tax dilemmas, 1,000 U.S. citizens and green-card holders renounced their American citizenship and allegiance in the first three months of 2014, according to data highlighted in last week's Wall Street Journal.

Though it's worth noting that France's 45 percent individual tax rate is higher than the U.S. rate of 39.6 percent, according to KPMG.

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